Cathy's Reviews > Elsewhere

2015 Reading Challenge: a book with a one-word title

I adore the idea of this book. The fact that there really could be a place much like Elsewhere, where everyone ends up after they pass away and get to spend their time aging backwards until they are reborn? I absolutely love that concept. It stands to reason, therefore, that there was a good possibility I'd end up loving this book. But I didn't.

In fact, I wish another writer would have thought of this idea and written a book about it. One that maybe would have reached its full potential.

Because the thing is...this isn't all that well-written? The book reads more like middle grade than young adult, especially at the beginning. Actually it reads like something in between that tried to be young adult but failed.

It's as if whenever something happens in the book, the characters don't actually talk about it. It gets mentioned and then there's no follow-up. I don't really know how to explain it BUT IT'S SO WEIRD.

(view spoiler)[To give an example that I remember clearly because it happened towards the end: Liz decides to use the Sneaker clause and return back to earth early without telling anyone but one friend about it. She writes a note to her grandmother and leaves. But halfway back on her way to Earth, she starts regretting the decision and want to swim back to Elsewhere. The friend she told about leaving, meanwhile, informed her other friends and her grandmother and they all go look for her to see if maybe she changed her mind and is trying to get back. Her friend Owen eventually finds her on his boat and pulls her on board, and then the whole incident is basically not mentioned again. Nobody talks to her to find out why she decided not to go through with it after all, no questions the episode, nothing.

In fact, the only time her grandmother makes a reference to it, Liz gives some flippant remark and the subject is dropped again. And the thing is, this is only one example. Things like this happen throughout the entire book and it bothered me to no end. (hide spoiler)]

Everything about the story feels so disjointed, and half the book is a succession of "Liz shrugs."; "Liz shrugs again."; "Liz nods." Basically, there's a lot of shrugging and nodding going on. The Afterlife, people. It's fun times. And there's many things that are never even touched upon or explored. I just. Why would you come up with a pretty great idea like this and then ruin it? I am really very disappointed.

Another reason this didn't work for me, is that for 3/4 of the book, I couldn't stand Liz. I didn't care about her at all. Though I appreciated that she's not your average heroine who is always brave, and fearlessly soldiers on through whatever life (or death, in this case) throws at her. I did like the fact that she needed time to adjust and couldn't just accept everything easily. But despite all of that, she was just too one-dimensional for me. This was not at all helped by the writing, to be honest.

It did pick up a little when she meets Owen. I liked Owen a lot, though not enough to redeem this in any way. I am still in love with the concept, though, but this was not at all what I had expected it to be.